Too often, I go through life holding my breath with my shoulders up to my ears worrying about everything all at once. Summertime has always been a time for me to catch my breath and experience the goodness life has to offer, like dragonflies, lightning bugs, ice cream cones, dolphins and all the magic that learning to relax again brings.
For Mother’s Day, my husband Byron gave me two stand up paddle boards. We spent many days out on the local lake perfecting our paddling before summer even began.
I love being on my board and feeling the stillness and oneness with the water as I stand or sit and paddle around.
To stand on the board, I have to have a calm mind, I have to be relaxed, or I am going to fall off the board. It usually takes me five to ten minutes of wobbling on the board before I get my balance. With a deep breath and a slight bend in my knees, I finally feel anchored to the water.
We all thought it was a brilliant idea to bring the boards on our summer vacation to Anna Maria Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida. I have to admit, the first time I took one of the paddle boards out in the Gulf water, I was a nervous wreck.
In what seemed like a matter of seconds, the current brought me far out from the beach. While standing on my board and looking at the distant shoreline, I thought a great white shark was going to attack me. Being in deep water, far from shore made my mind jump to the “what ifs,” and my mind went from one marine life attack to another.
Even though my mind was on high-alert, I was not attacked by a shark, or sea snake, or any other sharp-toothed spiny-tailed creature. I have been around the ocean enough to know that I didn’t need to be in deep water to be stung, or pierced or bitten. I consider water above my shoulders to be deep water, and paddling far from shore made me feel extremely vulnerable.
I was overprotective with my kids when they first went out on the boards in the Gulf. With their life jackets on before their toes even hit the water, I told them to watch the shoreline and make sure they don’t get pulled out with the current.
My kids are teenagers and don’t like it when I am overprotective, so there was a little stress with the boards that first day. “Maaaam, I’ve got this,” they would say while giving me ‘back-off’ glares.
By the second day, we were all getting the hang of SUP boarding in the ocean. My neck and back were still healing from last year’s car wreck, and I kept thinking about what the spine doctor told me during my visit a few days before we left for our Florida vacation.
(You didn’t know I had a car wreck last summer? Really? Well, take a break and read about it here by clicking on the car, but come right back!)
At the end of my visit with the spine doctor, I asked if I’d take my board out on the Gulf. He replied, “Don’t go on a stand up paddle board!”
So, I said, “Why not?”
And he said, “Because, if you fall you can really mess up your neck, and we are trying to let it heal.”
So naturally I heard, “Don’t fall off the paddle board if you decide to go on one.” I have selective hearing.
By day two, I was getting over my fear of paddling in the ocean. Instead of thinking of the usual, “what ifs,” I began to think of an entirely different set of “what ifs” as in “what if a dolphin swam by me while I was on my board, or a sea turtle, or a manatee.” My board began to take me in the direction of “what if an adventure is on its way” as opposed to “what if doom awaits me.”
As I sat on the beach with Byron, I noticed people beginning to point at paddle boarders in the ocean. Then, I saw some fins surfacing around the people paddling on their boards. I jumped up, grabbed my life jacket and a paddle and hollered at Byron to help me carry my board to the ocean. He doesn’t often listen to me without putting up a 15-minute question/answer session, but for once he did what I asked, and we both rushed toward the ocean.
I put my jacket on as I ran towards the ocean. Byron threw the board in the water and said, “What if those are sharks?” to which I heard, “They’re dolphins. Go! Go!”
Before I could think through what was happening, I was paddling alongside three other paddle boarders. Swimming beside us, under us, in front of us, were six very playful dolphins.
It was a complete adrenaline rush.
Laurie paddle boarding with the dolphins. Picture by Jared.
We were giddy with laughter.
The dolphins played with us for about 500 yards; then, we headed towards an area where there was a strong riptide. A few yards before the rough water, the dolphins zipped straight out in the ocean.
Playtime was over.
I wondered if they broke away from us at that point because they knew the rough water was there. Maybe the dolphins didn’t want to endanger us?
One of the paddlers floated beside me and said she saw a manatee in the water earlier. I told her how I had only seen manatees at a distance, and it always made me wonder if whether I honestly saw a manatee or just a bunch of seaweed.
As I slowly paddled back, I noticed the two men who daily stood in the chest-deep water with drinks in their hands kept cold in Yeti cooler-cups. They shouted to me the word, “Manatee.”
“What?” I replied as I paddled closer to the seemingly drunk men.
They pointed and yelled, “There’s a manatee.”
I wasn’t sure why they decided to share that, and for a moment I thought they were referring to me. I have gained weight lately.
The swaying men pointed, and I paddled in the direction of their outstretched arms…
Check back tomorrow to find out what those Yeti-wielding men saw.